





,i>.. .<,-V 



>#vc.'? li^.,^ *'^ "^'^^ 






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Chap. L Copyright M... 

ShelfJ^^^^' 



tC^G" 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Catarrh, Colds and Grippe, 



Including Prevention and Cure, 

With Chapters on 
Nasal Polypus, 
Hay Fever and 
Influenza, 

BY 

JOHN H. CLARKE, M. D., 

Consulting Physician to the London Homoeopathic 

Hospital; Editor of the "Homoeopathic World;" 

Author of "The Prescriber," "A Dictionary 

of Domestic Medicine," " Indigestion : 

Its Causes and Cure;" "A Bird's-eye 

View of the Homoeopathic 

Sj^stemof Medicine," 

Etc. 



AMERICAN EDITION. 
Revised by the Author from the Fourth English Edition. 



Philadelphia ; 

BOERICKE & TAFEL. 

1899. 



SECOND COPY, 






6481 



COPYRIGHTE^D 

BY 

BOKRICKK & TAFKIy. 



TWO COPIES RECEIVED, 






T. B. & H. B. COejI|^N, 

PRINTERS,"- /^^^^^tjr ^'^^^'^ " 

LANCASTER, PA.>«*^^ <*f C^P*^ ^ 







CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Preface to American Edition, .... v 
Preface to Fourth Engi^ish Edition, . vii 
From the Prefaces to the First and 

Second Editions, xi 

SECTION I.— COLDS. 

Chapter I. — Coi^ds, i 

Chapter II. — Coi.d-Catching, .... 13 
Chapter III.— Cold-Preventing, ... 25 

Chapter IV. — Coi.d-Curing, 32 

Chapter V.— The Medicinai. Treatment 

OF Acute Coi.ds, 45 

Chapter VI. — The Medicinai, Treat- 
ment OF Chronic Coi^ds and the 
Tendency to take Coi^d, . . 60 

Chapter VII. — Nasai, Poi^ypus, 71 

Chapter VIII.— Hay Fever, 78 

SECTION II.— INFLUENZA. 

Chapter I. — Description, 84 

Chapter II. — Treatment, ..... 93 

Materia Medica, 103 

Index, 117 



PREFACE TO AMERICAN EDITION. 



An extensive experieiice among Ameri- 
can residents and visitors in Loudon con- 
vinces me that among the bonds of com- 
munity between the two great divisions 
of Anglo-Saxonia, one of no little im- 
portance is a common interest in the sub 
ject of nasal catarrh. I must, therefore, 
abandon the claim I made in the first 
editions of this work, that " cold in the 
head " is a British interest par excellence; 
and in offering this little work to Ameri- 
can readers I trust that my insular stand- 
point will prove no bar to its wider use- 
fulness. 

JOHN H. CLARKE. 
30 CivARGES Street, 

P1CCAD11.1.Y, London W., 
July, 1899. 



PREFACE TO FOURTH ENGLISH EDITION. 



The call for a new edition of my lit- 
tle treatise on Colds has enabled me to 
put it through a complete revision, and 
at the same time to add a section on that 
most unwelcome visitor of recent years — 
Epidemic Infi^uknza. The name In- 
fluenza has become indissolubly con- 
nected with colds in the head ; and epi- 
demic influenza has so many features in 
common with ordinary colds, that some 
account of the malady and how it may 
be cured, together with the large family 
of ills it leaves behind it, seems called for 
in the present volume. 



viii Preface. 

I have heard many people say in refer- 
ence to the scourge, which is now in the 
seventh year of its visitation, that it is 
ridiculous to call this Influenza : this 
is something a great deal worse ! But, as 
a matter of fact, the epidemic influenza 
is the originator of the name, severe 
colds having been called ''influenza 
colds ' ' after it. 

For centuries the epidemic disease has 
prevailed in Western Europe at uncer- 
tain intervals, and for want of a more 
definite description the Italians named it 
' ' Influenza, " or ' ' The Influence. ' ' 
And as this name does not commit any 
one to special views as to the pathol- 
ogy of the disease, it is so far unob- 
jectionable, and has become generally 
adopted. 

My own theory as to the application 
of the name to severe ordinary colds is 
this : For some time after a visitation 



Preface. ix 

of an epidemic, infectious colds of a 
severe type have prevailed, and have 
been called ''Influenza Colds," to dis- 
tinguish them from common non-infec- 
tious colds. By degrees, for the sake of 
shortness, they have been called simply 
'"Influenza." Hence has arisen the 
confusion when the next epidemic has 
come round. 

The name our French neighbours 
have given it is " La Grippe " which is 
suflSciently suggestive of the sudden 
manner in which it seizes its victims, 
and this term, in its Anglified form of 
"grip," is the favourite name of the 
disease on the American Continent. 

I have also taken the opportunity of 
adding a chapter on a frequent con- 
sequence and concomitant of chronic 
colds, NasaIv P01.YPUS ; and another on 
Hay Fkvkr ; and I have given an ac- 



X Preface. 

count of some remedies not mentioned 
in the earlier editions, including an im- 
portant remedy, newly introduced by Dr. 
Cooper, Lemna minor, 

JOHN H. CIvARKE. 



FROM THB 

PREFACES TO THE FIRST AND 
SECOND EDITIONS. 



My subject is discussed under three 
main heads, — Cold-Catching, Cold-Pre- 
venting, and Cold-Curing. The preven- 
tion and cure of colds are partly 
medicinal and partly general. It is pos- 
sible to cure colds or prevent them by 
general measures, and these will be re- 
ferred to in detail. But medicines are 
the most powerful agents we possess 
both in dealing with colds when taken, 
and in fortifying the constitution against 
their recurrence. The last portion of 
my work will be devoted to this section; 



xii Preface. 

and I shall add a short Materia Medica^ 
in which the Medicines most suitable for 
colds will be arranged in alphabetical 
order, and their particular properties and 
indications for use described. 

When I first sent this little work to 
the public, I urged on its behalf that 
the Common Coi.d in thk Hkad had 
never before possessed a treatise devoted 
entirely to itself; and I maintained that 
it deserved one just as much as other 
more dignified diseases. My plea has 
been accepted in the most satisfactory 
way; for within three months of the 
book's first appearance, I have been 
asked by the publishers to prepare a 
second edition. The Common Coi.d 
has thus triumphantly vindicated its 
right to be deemed a serious disease in 
the estimation of the British public. 

I am not sure that even a higher 
distinction might not be claimed for 



Preface. xiii 

it, namely, to be called ^* The British 
disease ' ' par excellence. Foreigners, as is 
well known, reserve that name for what 
they call '' the spleen," meaning by this, 
low spirits, melancholy, and tendency to 
suicide, which they attribute to our 
foggy climate. Naturally we British 
are not so keenly alive to the preva- 
lence and gravity of ' ' the spleen ' ' as our 
observant neighbours; but there is no 
denying that we do possess peculiar 
facilities for catching cold. I venture 
to think (as I shall explain in my in- 
troductory chapter) that the prevalence 
of colds has something to do with the 
melancholy temper which foreigners 
think so distinctive of the British nation, 
and is the real explanation of that mys- 
terious affection ''the spleen." The 
*' spleen," I may remark, is not recog- 
nized by medical men as a disease at 
all, but only as an inoffensive organ of 



xiv Preface. 

the body. But our colds are acknowl- 
edged by everybody — doctors, laity, and 
foreigners — and if we have a distinct- 
ively national disease at all, I should cer- 
tainly give this name to CoIvD in thk 
Head. 

JOHN H. CLARKE. 



Catarrtj, Colds and Grippe. 



CHAPTER I. 

COLDS. 



T7ERY little sympathy is be- 
stowed on an unfortunate who 
has taken a cold in his head. It is 
a humiliating thing, and he feels it. 
Also, what is worse, his friends 
share his feeling, and despise him 
(secretly, of course) as much as he 
despises himself, and vote him a 
nuisance. It must have been mere 
stupidity on his part, tbey feel, that 
made him catch the cold — if it was 



2 Colds. 

not sheer malice — just on purpose 
to annoy them with his sneez- 
ings and continual nose-moppings. 
Now, if the chill he had taken had 
only gone to his lungs, and laid 
him up with pneumonia, the same 
friends would have been all sym- 
pathy and devotion, and the doc- 
tor would have been summoned 
post-haste. And yet the misery, 
though not the danger, of a cold 
in the head is quite as great as 
that of pneumonia, and generally 
lasts much longer, and the victim 
is no less deserving of sympathy 
in the former case than in the 
latter. 

Besides the humiliation, a cold is 
such a waster of time. Whatever 
a man may be doing, every few 



Colds. 3 

minutes his nose must be attended 
to and his eyes wiped before the 
work can be gone on with. An 
artist at his easel, or an author at 
his desk, must drop pen or brush 
every little while, whatever may be 
the high inspirations that are cry- 
ing within for utterance. Finally, 
there is the depression that some 
sufferers feel when seized with a 
cold in the head. It is sometimes 
quite terrible. Life is not worth 
living for them; and I should not 
be surprised if the true explanation 
of the many inscrutable cases of 
suicide we read of in the papers was 
not to be found in this as, at least, 
a partial cause. When the com- 
bined wisdom of jury and coroner 
can assign ^^no cause for the rash 



4 Colds. 

act/' it might help them to some- 
thing definite if they were to ask 
whether the deceased had not had a 
severe cold in his head at the time. 
We speak of a cold in the head as 
if there was only one kind of cold ; 
bnt the fact is, there is an infinite 
variety. Every person almost has 
something characteristic about the 
course and progress of his unassist- 
ed cold. The orthodox cold is the 
one which begins, after sitting in a 
draught, with a creeping chilly 
feeling up the back, culminating 
in a sneeze. Then there is a lull in 
the proceedings ; but the nose never 
feels quite easy, and by-and-by 
another sneeze announces that the 
damage is really done. Soon a 
/'Contest between the Eyes and 



Colds. 5 

Nose'^ sets in as to whicli can run 
the fastest ; then the running 
slackens, the nose becomes stopped 
by swelling of mucous membrane, 
which afterwards relieves itself by 
giving off a thick secretion. But 
for days there is a general suscep- 
tibility. The faintest airs are felt 
as thorough draughts and set the 
patient off sneezing. He can't get 
away from the thought of his nose, 
try how he will. It is the last 
thing he thinks of at night, and 
the first thing that claims his 
thoughts in the morning ; and this 
goes on indefinitely, depending 
much on the time of the year, 
the state of the weather, and the 
treatment he receives. Sometimes, 
in spite of everything, it goes on 



6 Colds. 

day after day until lie begins to 
think it will really never end. 

This is the orthodox cold. But 
all colds are not orthodox. Very 
often the first thing to announce a 
cold is the sneeze, no preliminary 
chill having been felt. And, again, 
some people begin to feel a cold 
first in the throat, and it gradually 
works its way upwards and for- 
wards. 

The influenza cold I do not 
rank as a distinct variety. It is 
the fashion to call very severe 
colds ^^nfluenza,'' and to attribute 
them to the prevalence of ^^ ozone 
clouds." Certain it is that colds 
do prevail in epidemic fashion, and 
at times seem to come independ- 
ently of any distinct chill. But 



I 



Colds. 7 

once taken, the cold is indistin- 
guishable from any other severe 
cold by its characteristics. 

There is also the ^^ catching '' 
cold; for some colds, at any 
rate, are infectious. It is well 
known that when a cold of this 
description once appears in a 
family — often first in the person of 
the domestic cat — it ^^ goes through 
the house," every member of that 
household feeling its effects sooner 
or later. 

Epidemic influenza (which is 
also infectious) I shall deal with 
later on, in a section by itself. The 
name of the disease, and the way in 
which it became associated with 
ordinary colds, I have already dis- 
cussed in the preface to this volume. 



8 Colds. 

This is an inquiring age, and 
doubtless the question will be put 
to me — What is a cold in the head? 
The principal feature is a swollen 
and congested condition of the 
mucous membrane lining the nos- 
trils and the air spaces connected 
with them, with increased irritabil- 
ity of the membrane and increased 
and altered secretion. The ^^ full '' 
sensation in the head is due to ex- 
tension of the swelling along the off- 
shoots of the nasal mucous mem- 
brane, which line the cavities in the 
skull bones, — those, for instance, 
which lie in the frontal bone, where 
it forms the prominences of the 
eyebrows. The deafness which 
sometimes accompanies a cold in 
the head depends on swelling of 



Colds. 9 

the mucous membrane which lines 
the tube passing from the back of 
the nose to the ear. The chilliness 
and sensitiveness of the skin which 
accompany cold in tbe head indi- 
cate that the affection is constitu- 
tional as well as local, and show 
that some change has been brought 
about in the vital resisting power. 
Snuff* or pepper will make a 
person sneeze, and set up mucous 
secretion for the time ; but in this 
case the action is local only and 
not constitutional, and no cold has 
really been taken,though the symp- 
toms, as far as the nose is con- 
cerned, are identical. It is this 
fact of the constitutional character 
of a cold that makes the selection 
of the remedy often a matter of 



lo Colds. 

some difficulty. The cold medi- 
cines, sucli as Aconite^ Arsenicum^ 
and Mercurius^ each affect the 
system generally as well as locally, 
and cause all the constitutional 
symptoms of cold, and yet all dif- 
ferently from one another. Conse- 
quently, in choosing a remedy for 
cold, we must bear in mind the 
constitutional symptoms of the 
patient and the constitutional 
symptoms of the drugs. 

The simple irritation of the nasal 
mucous membrane, with slight 
mucous secretion often experienced 
in the beginning of cold weather, 
does not constitute cold. It is 
analogous to the chapping of the 
hands, and is purely a local effect. 

In some instances one attack of 



Colds. 1 1 

cold appears to be protective against 
other attacks. A person has regu- 
larly at the beginning of winter one 
cold. This, in a week or two, is 
got over, and then he goes the 
rest of the year round without 
having another attack. 

Having said this much regarding 
the pathology of Cold in the Head, 
we can say little more. Why chill- 
ing of the surface of the body should 
sometimes be followed by all this 
train of symptoms is one of the 
many points in medical affairs still 
in the region of speculation. The 
Lancet the other day promised us 
that, ^^ thanks to the researches of 
German experimenters,'^ ^^scientific 
doctors '' might hope to be able, ^^ in 
the near future,'^ to tell whether 



1 2 Colds, 

any given stomach was out of order 
or not. At present we know pretty 
well whether we have a cold in the 
head or not without the assistance 
of a ^^ scientific physician ;" but if 
these German experimenters take 
up the subject of a Cold in the 
Head, it is possible that ^^ in the 
near future '^ we shall be unable 
to have scientific assurance even 
of that. Let us hope they will 
leave it alone. For our purposes 
it is enough to know when we 
have got a cold, how to cure it 
when we have got it, and how to 
avoid getting another. 



CHAPTER II. 

COLD-CATCHING. 

npHBRE are innumerable ways 
of catching cold, and some 
people are peculiarly expert in the 
art. They will pick up a cold 
when ordinary people would not 
have experienced the slightest 
change of temperature or movement 
of air. Perhaps the commonest 
way of taking cold is by sitting 
in a draught, especially if the sitter 
is either heated in any w^ay, tired, 
or exhausted. But it does not 
need chilling of the whole body ; 
and some people are vulnerable in 



14 Cold-Catching. 

one part and some in another. 
Most people are liable to cold if 
they get their feet wet and chilled ; 
but some are more sensitive in the 
hands, and if driving or walking 
without gloves on a rainy day, will 
have a cold in the head developed 
forthwith. It is by no means 
necessary to have a draught in 
order to catch cold. It is quite 
sufficient to sit near a closed win- 
dow, on a cold day, glass forming 
an insufficient protection against 
the cold without ; or even to sit 
in a cold room away from a win- 
dow. This is one of the penalties 
that occasionally attend making 
morning calls. The caller is shown 
into a room kept for the purpose, 
the sunshine being excluded for 



Cold' Catching. 1 5 

fear of damage to the carpets, and 
tlie windows kept perpetually closed 
for fear of dust. A room of this 
kind is like a well, even in the 
height of summer, and many a cold 
has been caught in warm weather 
by a twenty-minutes' stay in such 
an atmosphere. But it is not cold 
rooms alone that give cold. There 
are persons who take cold from 
going into a room that is over- 
heated, and begin to sneeze and 
show signs of catarrh almost as 
soon as they enter. On the other 
hand, there is the very common way 
of taking cold by going out of a 
heated room into the cold air with 
insufficient wraps. 

Some people seem to have a 
mania for changing their clothes. 



1 6 Cold' Catching. 

They will leave off a warm gar- 
ment on a cold day out of pure ca- 
price. Others will put on their 
summer clothing on a sunny morn- 
ing in March, and be caught in a 
snowstorm before the day is over. 
The only persons who are aston- 
ished when these catch cold are 
their innocent selves. 

Sleeping in damp sheets is a fre- 
quent cause of taking cold, but gen- 
erally it is something worse than a 
cold in the head that follows this. 
It is a most dangerous thing to do, 
aftd when the choice lies between a 
damp bed or none, the latter should 
be unhesitatingly chosen. During 
sleep, the resisting power of the 
body is at its lowest ebb, and damp 
clothing at any time will drain off 



Cold- Catching. 1 7 

the vital force, and therefore much 
more certainly when the person is 
asleep. Very dangerous, also, 
though not quite so dangerous as 
sleeping in damp sheets, is wear- 
ing insufficiently aired underlinen. 
Many violent chills are taken in 
this way, and also through sitting 
in wet clothes, after being out in 
the rain, especially if heated at the 
time; dry clothes should always be 
put on before sitting down to rest. 
Excessive indulgence in cold 
water is sometimes answerable for 
colds. ^^ The Englishman's stupid 
devotion to his morning tub,'' I once 
heard a French doctor say, ^4s the 
cause of a great deal of his rheu- 
matism and other diseases which 
are the effects of cold. ' ' And though 
3 



1 8 Cold-Catching. 

some of my readers may be in- 
clined to vote him right off ''a 
nasty, dirty thing/ ^ there was some 
truth in his criticism. And, indeed, 
he is an impartial witness, as he is 
himself a bath-doctor, being resi- 
dent physician at one of the great 
continental bathing establish- 
ments. There are some people, 
mostly young men, who think it 
quite necessary to wash their 
heads in cold water every morning, 
and quite unnecessary to dry them. 
This, they think, clears their 
brains, and saves them the neces- 
sity of using bear's grease — the 
hair when wet lying flat and 
straight without it. The human 
organism is really very accommo- 
dating, and will sometimes bear 



Cold-Catching. 19 

even this treatment withont resent- 
ing it. But not always ; for many 
a violent cold is taken in this way. 
The morning cold bath is an 
excellent institution when it is judi- 
ciously used. For persons in vig- 
orous health, with good circula- 
tions and freely acting skins, 
nothing is more w^holesome than 
the morning tub and scrub-down 
with a rough towel afterwards. 
This is one of the best means of 
fortifying the system against the 
eflfects of chill. But like many 
other good things in this world, the 
bath-room is not an unmixed boon. 
Apart from the possibility of the 
cistern getting out of order, and 
the servant dropping a para£&n 
lamp into it in an endeavour to 



20 Cold-Catching. 

find out what is wrong, there are 
other risks attending this latest 
necessity of the modern house. 

The human skin is a complex 
organ. It covers in all the other 
organs; but besides acting as a 
covering, it contains many struct- 
ures within itself. There are the 
sweat glands, the hair follicles, and 
the sebaceous glands, secreting an 
oily matter which keeps the skin 
soft, and prevents the too rapid 
removal of the outer particles of 
the scarf-skin. The scarf-skin is 
composed of a number of layers 
of microscopic cells, round in the 
deeper parts, flat, like scales, on the 
surface. The sui face scales are con- 
stantly coming away, and making 
room for the new cells beneath. 



Cold' Catching. 2 1 

When the skin is in a healthy 
condition, this scaling-off is imper- 
ceptible, except, perhaps, on the 
head. 

Some skins are poor in the se- 
cretion of the sebaceous glands. 
The consequence of this is that 
these skins are more susceptible to 
outside influences, as the secretion, 
besides giving softness to the skin, 
gives it also a measure of protection. 
If, therefore, those whose skins are 
of this description think that it is 
necessary to wash in cold water 
every day in order to keep up to 
the standard of cleanliness, they 
remove more than they can spare 
of this sebaceous material, and 
leave the skin hard and powdery, 
and susceptible to all changes of 



2 2 Cold" Catching. 

temperature. This may be counter- 
acted in a measure by the use of oil 
— as salad oil — with which athletes 
rub themselves after their practis- 
ing. A very small quantity serves 
to cover the whole skin, which soon 
absorbs it. But it is quite a mis- 
take to suppose that frequent wash- 
ing is necessary to cleanliness. 
The skin is to a large extent self- 
clensing, and frequent washing — 
however pleasant and otherwise 
desirable it may be — is not a 
necessity under ordinary condi- 
tions. Frequent change of under- 
clothing answers the same purpose 
as frequent bathing in those whose 
skins are not very active. For 
them, a hot bath or a Turkish 
bath once a week is quite sufficient. 



Cold-Catching. 23 

It lias been said that the most 
cleanly people in the world are the 
poor and the ricli. The latter have 
all the means of washing them- 
selves withont the necessity of ex- 
ertion: the former are obliged to 
exert themselves in order to earn 
their living, and their own exer- 
tions create that activity of the 
skin which makes it cleanse itself; 
whilst the intermediate class, which 
has not yet attained to the Inxury 
of baths and bath-rooms, and is not 
compelled to make great muscular 
exertions, is less cleanly than 
either. Like most generalizations 
this contains a good deal of truth, 
though it won't bear applying in 
particular instances. There are 
people who are both poor and lazy, 



24 Cold-Catching. 

and laziness is the great parent of 
nncleanliness everywhere. 

Bnt apart from the secretions of 
the skin, there is the circulation to 
be considered. There are some 
whose skins are always chilly in 
cold weather and ready to develop 
chilblains, and others who can 
never get a reaction after a cold 
bath. These shonld content them- 
selves with a quick dry-rubbing 
every morning with a rough towel, 
and should not think of taking 
cold baths. 



CHAPTER III. 
COIvD-PRE VENTING . 

TN discussing the question of cold- 
catching, the other question of 
QoXdi-avoidzng comes in as a matter 
of course. To all persons about to 
take cold in the ways above men- 
tioned, the laconic advice of Mr. 
Punch comes naturally to our 
minds — doii't. But unhappily we 
cannot always choose our circum- 
stances, and therefore it is desir- 
able to fortify ourselves against 
the contingencies alluded to. 
And, fortunately, there is much 



26 Cold'Prevenitng. 

to be done in the way of cold- 

PREVENTING. 

One of the chief precautions 
against cold is the avoidance of 
^^ coddling.'' The mufHer is a 
great snare. It is ninch better to 
accustom the neck to bear a certain 
amount of exposure, giving it the 
protection of collar and tie, but 
nothing more. Sometimes the 
muffler is relied on as the sole 
extra wrap on a cold day. If a 
child has a few yards of knitted 
stuff twisted around its neck, the 
fond parent is apt to feel that there 
is no need to attend to its back and 
chest. But the muffler will not 
fill the part of an overcoat, which 
is the garment really needed. 

In speaking of the morning bath, 



Cold-Preventing. 27 

I have indicated its usefulness for 
this purpose in those whose consti- 
tutions are suitable. And I have 
also pointed out the value of in- 
unction with oil, such as salad oil, 
in those whose skins are poor. A 
very small quantit}^, about a tea- 
spoonful, will suffice to go over the 
whole body. If this is done at 
night, and a woollen sleeping dress 
worn, the cold bath may be taken 
without risk and with advantage in 
the morning, provided there is good 
reaction. If the reaction is not 
good, a dry-rubbing must suffice. 
In children who are chilly and lia- 
ble to colds, nothing is better than 
inunction every night with cod 
liver oiL They must, of course, be 
wrapped in flannel night-dresses. 



28 Cold-Preventing. 

The odor is not of the pleasantest, 
but the good effect is so great that 
this is a small consideration. The 
child may be sponged in the morn- 
ing, and briskly rubbed before 
dressing, and no unpleasant odour 
will then be detected. 

There is another substitute for 
the morning tub which will proba- 
bly be found more acceptable to 
many than the last named, and that 
is sponging with spirit of wine. 
Contact with water increases chilli- 
ness, but contact with spirit dimin- 
ishes it. One or two tablespoonfuls 
of spirit of wine may be poured 
into a saucer and taken up with a 
small sponge. This may then be 
passed rapidly all over the body, 
and the clothes immediately put on. 



Cold-Preventing. 29 

The spirit dries at once, so there is 
no need of towelling afterwards. 
The effect of this is to impart a 
feeling of warmth which not un- 
frequently lasts the entire day. 
This is especially valuable to those 
who are excessively sensitive to 
the effects of damp. 

In the prevention of colds, noth- 
ing is of greater importance than 
the question of Clothing. 

In a changeable climate like that 
of our country, persons who are at 
all susceptible to changes in the 
temperature and weather should 
be so clothed that they are in a 
constant state of preparation. 
There are some who have such 



30 Cold-Preventing. 

active circulations tliat their skins 
are never chilly whatever the state 
of the atmosphere may be. These 
have a natural defence, and need 
take no special precautions. They 
may wear what they like best — 
cotton, or silk, or wool. But these 
are the fortunate few. Others who 
are less highly endowed should 
wear next their skin, and com- 
pletely encasing their bodies, a 
material which will retain the 
bodily heat and electricity, whilst 
allowing the escape of the perspira- 
tion, much of which comes away in 
the form of watery vapour. The 
best of all material of this kind is 
wool. Dr. Jaeger deserves the 
thanks of all for the attention he 
has given to this subject, although 



Cold-Preventing . 3 1 

like most men with hobbies he is 
apt to ride his too hard. A com- 
plete suit of woollen underclothing 
is the best possible protection 
against sudden chilling. And the 
night-dress may be made of the 
same material if there is any occa- 
sion to be about at night or any 
difficulty in keeping warm. 

There are some whose skins are 
so sensitive that they cannot endure 
the contact of wool in any form. 
For them silk is the best. But 
silk is not so warm as wool, and 
not so efficient a protection. 



CHAPTER IV. 



COI.D-CURING. 



npHBRK is a German saying 
to this effect : ^^ A clever 
physician will cure a cold in a fort- 
night ; it will get well of itself in 
fourteen days.'' The proverb does 
not venture to say how long a cold 
will go on under the ministrations 
of a physician who is 7tot clever, 
or to what length it will run when 
under amateur treatment. I can- 
not answer for what may happen in 
Germany, but I have known colds 
run on to portentious length under 
amateur or non-skilful medical 



Cold-Curing. 33 

guidance in this countr}^ And 
even physicians of repute some- 
times experience no small difficulty 
in getting rid of a severe catarrh 
in their own persons. But this 
proverb was no doubt invented be- 
fore Hahnemann and his system 
saw the light. Armed with his 
therapeutic weapons and a sound 
judgment, the physician of to-day 
can bid even colds defiance, and 
can shorten their fortnight^s right 
of duration by many days. 

The value of a therapeutic 
system and the proficiency of a 
physician are shown most of all 
in little things. A system which 
can only be applied in formidable 
illness, such as cholera and scarlet 

fever, is of only limited use in 
4 



3 4 Cold' Curing. 

practical life, and a doctor who can 
only apply it in grave illnesses, and 
can do nothing in the presence of a 
cold in the head or an eruption on 
the face, will find himself a help- 
less creature in nine-tenths of the 
cases he is consulted about. Nor 
is it of much use for him to 
pooh-pooh all illnesses that do not 
happen to be attended with danger 
to life, as some doctors are wont to 
do, — unless, indeed, they happen to 
be themselves the patients. Little 
illnesses deserve just as much 
attention as the great ones: for 
though they may not threaten 
life itself, they do often destroy all 
its pleasure ; and they are much 
more common than the others. 
The doctor who affects to despise 



Co Id' Curing. 35 

the minor ills is generally (whetlier 
he knows it or not) merely cover- 
ing his own want of skill and want 
of knowledge. He does not know 
what to do with the patient, and so 
tries to persuade him that the 
disorder is, as Mr. Toots would 
say, ^' of no consequence" — in fact, 
is quite beneath the range of his 
great studies, and therefore cannot 
be worth the notice of any learned 
mind. But the patient, who is 
perpetually worried with it, is not 
so easy to persuade that his tooth- 
ache, or his headache, or his erup- 
tion, or his cold in the head is really 
nothing, if he can only bring his 
mind to think so. He only concludes 
that it is no use taking his com- 
plaint to the members of the high 



36 Cold-Curing. 

and miglity faculty, and betakes 
himself to old dames' remedies, or 
quack nostrums whose obliging 
proprietors promise in their adver- 
tisements attention to the most 
trivial details. 

But Homoeopathy has brought 
a vast change into medicine in 
regard to its general applicability. 
It can be adapted to any disorder, 
no matter how grave or how 
apparently trivial. It is like the 
steam-hammer, which can crack 
a nutshell without injuring the 
nut, or tap a watch-case without 
breaking it, just as easily as it can 
weld and shape masses of iron pre- 
senting a resisting power of many 
tons. There are few sensations 
more pleasant than to awake in the 



Cold' Curing. 3 7 

morning and find one's self free from 
a cold, when tlie night before one 
had gone to bed sneezing and shiv- 
ering, and had abandoned one's self 
to a fortnight's misery. Thanks 
to homoeopathy and its discoverer, 
this miracle is performed every day. 
There is no medicine that will cure 
every cold, since, as I have pointed 
out, colds differ widely in their 
characters. But the homoeopathic 
Materia Medica is so rich that it 
has a medicine for every one's cold, 
though it depends on the skill and 
judgment of the prescriber to find 
the right one. 

Before discussing the homoeo- 
pathic remedies for cold, and point- 
ing out their leading characteristics 
and indications, I will speak of the 



38 Cold-Curing. 

general measures which are resorted 
to, and often with success. 

Nearly every one has his own 
treatment for his own cold. One 
will keep himself a prisoner in his 
house until it is better. Another, 
as soon as he finds he has taken 
cold, will take a ten-mile walk 
at full-speed, and when he comes 
in go straight to bed, piling on 
the blankets in order to keep up 
the effect. A third, before retir- 
ing, will mix himself a stiff glass 
of toddy, and by the time it is 
finished will at any rate have for- 
gotten his cold, if he has not cured 
it. The ^^ night-cap treatment," 
I am reminded by a friend, is 
sometimes very successful. Night- 
caps are seldom worn nowadays; 



Cold- Curing. 3 9 

and if one who is not accnstomed 
to them puts one on when he 
has a cold (or, which comes to 
the same thing, wraps his head up 
warmly when he goes to bed) , he 
will often get rid of it by this 
means. Another efficacious re- 
medy is the time-honoured jorum 
of hot onion gruel. The more 
efficient part of the gruel is the 
onion which it contains, and which 
we shall see presently (under its 
botanical name Cepa or Allium 
cepd) , is strikingly homoeopathic to 
colds. The idea of these remedies 
(and to them may be added the 
hot bath and the Turkish bath) 
is to restore bodily heat, and by 
perspiration to relieve the internal 
congestion which has resulted from 



40 Cold- Cu ring. 

chilling of the surface and driv- 
ing the blood inwards. And not 
nnfreqnently these measures are 
quite successful. There is another 
means of curing colds, and that is 
what may be called the salt treat- 
ment. Later on I shall have oc- 
casion to refer to the value of 
salt as a homoeopathic remedy for 
colds under the name it has always 
borne in Homoeopathy, Natrum 
muriaticum. The ordinary salt 
treatment for cold consists in eating 
highly salted food, such as herrings, 
or visiting salt-mines and salt-baths 
like those at Droitwich in England, 
and Ems, Obersalzbrunnen, and 
Gleichenberg in Germany. 

The effects of these salt-springs 
may be obtained without visiting 



Cold- Curing. 41 

tlie locality, by drinking the waters 
mixed in equal proportions with 
hot skim-milk or whey. Bms 
water drunk in this way will often 
assist the resolution of a cold. 

Sulphur-springs, as those of the 
Baux-bonnes of the Pyrenees, are 
valuable for chronic colds of a 
certain kind. But the same patients 
who benefit by them would not 
benefit by the salt-springs; and the 
constitutional peculiarities of the 
patient must be considered before 
the decision is come to about which 
place to visit. 

These extreme measures will, of 
course, not be thought of for ordi- 
nary colds ; but only where they 
have become chronic, and the gen- 
eral health so depraved that ordi- 



42 Cold-Curing. 

nary measures are unequal to the 
task of bringing about the needed 
constitutional changes. 

For constitutions can be changed. 
It is not enough for a doctor to be 
able to ^^ understand '' his patient's 
constitution — he must be able to 
alter it sometimes. We often see 
this effect produced by natural 
causes. After severe fevers a 
patient liable to certain forms of 
illness, such as chest disorder, be- 
comes entirely free from them. It 
is quite common to hear the re- 
mark that '^ So-and-so has been 
quite different, and very much bet- 
ter than he used to be, ever since 
he had the measles,'' or some other 
fever. But the change is not al- 
ways for the better, by any means. 



Cold-Curing. 43 

The same fever wHcli will cure a 
constitutional tendency to disease 
in one patient, will set up a new 
one in another. 

Following on the lines of 
Nature, it is possible for us, with- 
out setting up a disease, to change 
the constitutional habit of a patient 
by a course of treatment ; and it is 
in cases where this is desired, that 
it is often advantageous to make 
use of natural mineral springs. 

But this is by no means always 
a necessity. In the appropriate 
homoeopathic remedy we have an 
agent as powerful for this purpose 
as the mineral waters where they 
issue from their fountains. 

In the matter of foods, it is 
found that all greasy kinds act 



44 Cold-Curing. 

injuriously in catarrhal conditions, 
and should, therefore, be avoided ; 
whilst salt foods, as salt herrings, 
are good. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE MEDICINAL TREATMENT OF 
ACUTE COLDS. 

npHE Medicinal Treatment of 
colds divides itself naturally 
into three parts, — Treatment of the 
acute attack; treatment of the con- 
dition when it has become chronic; 
and treatment of the constitutional 
tendency to be affected by chills. 

Colds in the Acute Stage. — 
Among the remedies for a cold in 
the incipient stage, two stand out 
prominently from all the rest — 
Camphor and Aconite. There is 



46 Medicinal Treatment of 

no remedy that has made more 
converts to Homoeopatliy than 
Aconite^ and its beautiful effect in 
dissipating the consequences of a 
chill is one of the most striking 
of its virtues. In a certain pro- 
portion of patients Camphor has 
an equally marked good effect; 
but Cam^phor has not such a wide 
range as its sister drug. Still, 
Camphor must not be neglected. 
The chill of Camphor is more 
marked than that of Aconite; and 
if a pilule (one of the large pilules 
sold in stoppered bottles by homoeo- 
pathic chemists) is taken every 
fifteen minutes from the moment 
that the chill has been experienced, 
and continued for a few hours 
until the reaction sets in, a cold 



Acute Colds. 47 

will almost invariably be warded 
off. Later on, Camphor^ tbougli it 
may prove useful, is not so likely to 
do so as is Aconite. Aconite'^ may 
be taken every hour, in doses of 
one drop or six pilules, for the first 
five or six hours, and afterwards 

"^ N.B, — In choosing a remedy it is not 
necessary that the case to be cured should 
have all the symptoms put down as charac- 
teristic of it. It will be sufficient if a few 
of the leading features of the cold corre- 
spond with those of the drug. For instance, 
a patient suflfering from an ordinary cold 
in the head in the freely running stage 
took Mercurius^ and the following day his 
cold had vanished. It will be found that 
under Mercurius many other symptoms are 
put down. These are all characteristic of the 
remedy, and will guide to the choice of it 
when found in any patient; but it is not 
necessary to have them all before prescribing 
the drug. 



48 Medicinal Treatment of 

every two hours. This may be 
kept up for forty-eight hours. 

The use of these two drugs as 
indicated — Camphor when the chill 
is first taken, Aconite if this stage 
has passed — may be followed, 
unless there are special reasons 
why they should not be used, as 
a routine practice. The great 
majority of colds will be cut short 
by them. If Aconite causes per- 
spiration, care should be taken to 
avoid another chill whilst the 
perspiration is going on. Other- 
wise, no special precautions need 
be observed. 

It is useless to cite examples of 
thetriumphs of these tw^o medicines, 
for they are to be found in nearly 
every family throughout the land ; 



Acute Colds. 49 

for the use of Aconite in colds is 
by no means confined to homoeo- 
pathic practice. The allopaths have 
in some mysterious way discovered 
the virtues of the drug, and made 
free use of it. Many patients of 
mine regularly cut short their colds 
with Aconite since they have 
learned how to take it. 

If a cold has lasted more than 
two days, other medicines must be 
thought of. Among these Gelse- 
mium^ Mercuriiis^ Arsenictiin^ Nux 
vomica^ Pulsatilla^ Sangiiinaria^ 
Cepa^ Natrum Tnuriatictim hold the 
first rank, and will be given accord- 
ing as the symptoms they have pro- 
duced in the healthy correspond 
to the symptoms of the cold. 

Sometimes the fever following 



50 Medicinal Treatment of 

a chill does not yield to Aconite^ 
and tlien Gelsemium is generally 
snccessful. The symptoms which 
call for Gelsemium are : — Chills 
creeping np the back, fnliiess of the 
head, heat of the face, beating of 
the arteries in the neck, hot, dry 
hands, feeling of langnor and drow- 
siness. The restlessness is less 
intense than that of Aconite^ and it 
often snbsides without inspiration, 
and returns again (of the '^ remit- 
ting '^ type, as it is called). The 
chilliness is often accompanied by 
a profuse flow of urine, which re- 
lieves the head. With this there 
is sneezing, fulness at the root of 
the nose, and flow of clear water 
from the nose and eyes. Dose: 3^, 
one drop or six pilules every hour. 



Acute Colds. 51 

When tlie nasal discharge is thin 
and irritating, with a hot bnrning 
sensation in nose and eyes, Arseni- 
cum is the remedy ; and if, in addi- 
tion, there is bnrning thirst, red 
tongne, headache, sleeplessness, 
anxiety, and prostration, all the 
symptoms being ameliorated by 
warmth^ the indications will be 
still stronger. The medicine shonld 
be given in the 3rd dilution, two 
drops (or two pilules) every hour 
or two. 

Arsenicum is the best remedy, in 
a general way, for the '' influenza 
cold,'' which produces a good deal 
of prostration, with free, irritating, 
thin discharge from nose and eyes. 

Mercurius is to be given in most 
common colds when there is an 



52 Medicinal Treatment of 

abundant flow of serous mucus 
from the nose, whicli is often 
swollen and red ; fetid smell of 
nasal mucus ; heavy frontal head- 
ache ; deafness ; nightly sweats 
with febrile chill and heat ; great 
thirst ; pains in the limbs ; low 
spirits and longing for solitude, 
all the symptoms being increased 
both by heat and cold. Dose : No. 
6, two drops or six pilules every 
two hours. 

Hepar sulph, — When Mercurius 
is indicated, but does not respond, 
or when the patient has already 
had too much ; when each draught 
of cold air produces fresh cold or a 
headache, only one nostril being 
affected, and the headache being 
made worse by movement. Dose : 



Acute Colds. 53 

No. 6, two drops or pilules six 
every two hours. 

Cepa (made from the red onion) . 
— Fluent coryza; tightness at root 
of nose ; constant sneezing; pain 
in back, and chills ; melancholy, 
anxiety, restlessness. Symptoms 
worse in a room, better out of doors. 
Dose: No. 3, two drops or six 
pilules every two hours. 

A case of violent cold in the head, 
with streaming eyes and nose, in a 
gouty patient, who had also a 
troublesome irritation of the skin, 
was cured completely by a few doses 
of Cepa, Usually her attacks, when 
occurring in the beginning of win- 
ter, went on to bronchitis, and in 
this instance the bronchial tubes 
had already become affected when I 
gave the Cepa^ which cleared off" 
everything. 



54 Medicinal Treatment of 

Pulsatilla. — Discharge of yellow- 
ish-green fetid mucus from the 
nose ; loss of appetite and sense of 
taste ; head heavy and embarrassed, 
especially in the evening and by the 
warmth of a room, with stoppage of 
the nose ; no thirst ; tearful humour; 
chilliness all the evening ; amelior- 
ation in the open air. Dose: 3"^, 
two drops or six pilules every two 
hours. 

Nux vomica is the remedy when 
the cold is ^' dry '' and the nose 
blocked ; or it may be dry in the 
morning and fluent in the evening. 
There is heaviness of the forehead. 
An angry, quarrelsome humour is 
characteristic of Nux. Aggrava- 
tion of symptoms occurs from 
mental exertion; in the morning ; 



Acute Colds, 55 

after retiring, especially after din- 
ner ; from motion ; from slight 
touch ; in the open air (in this 
contrasting with Pulsatilla^ as it 
does in so many points); and in dry 
weather. 

Sanguinaria or Nitrate of San- 
guinariii. — Profuse fluent coryza ; 
or dry, with frequent sneezing; dull, 
heavy pain at the root of the nose; 
odour of roasted onions in the 
nose ; dryness of lips ; tongue feels 
as if burnt ; throat full, swollen, 
and constricted ; sharp stitches in 
chest ; depression and irritability. 
Aggravation: morning and even- 
ing ; from light and motion. Dose 
of Sanguinaria : No. i, two drops 
or six pilules every two hours. 
Of Nitrate of Sanguinarin^ 3^ 



56 Medicinal Treatment of 

trituration, one grain every two 
hours. 

Natrum muriaticum. — Fluent 
coryza in chilly subjects; chills 
along the back; great thirst; vesi- 
cles on the lips or tendency to them; 
constipation; weight in forehead 
on rising in the morning ; sad- 
ness, depression, tendency to weep. 
Aggravation of symptoms in the 
morning^ and periodically. Dose : 
3 trit., two grains every two hours; 
or No. 6, two drops or six pilules 
every two hours. 

I take some credit to myself for 
bringing forward Natrum muriati- 
cttm as a remedy for colds. About 
sixteen years ago, when Dr. Bur- 
nett's work on the drug appeared, 
I made a study of it, and was struck 



Acute Colds. 57 

witti the number of cold-symptoms 
it possessed. Having a pretty severe 
cold myself at the time, I took a few 
doses of No. 6, and was intensely 
delighted to find my cold quite cured 
in the morning. I soon repeated 
the happy experience on several 
patients ; and then my partner, Dr. 
W. Roche, gave it on my recom- 
mendation to a patient of his own 
who was suflFering from a very 
severe cold. This patient declared 
he had never got rid of a cold so 
quickly in his life. At that time I 
thought that the range of the drug 
was so wide that it was equal to 
curing almost any cold. Subsequent 
experience did not justify that, but 
it did confirm me in my opinion 
that it is one of the most valuable 



58 Medicinal Treatment of 

remedies for cold we possess. It 
was whilst reading up the literature 
of this drug that I was struck by 
the coincidence of its being also 
recommended, from the old school 
point of view, in the shape of salt 
baths or douches ; and also by the 
popular use of the drug in salt food 
I shall have to refer to it again as 
a remedy for chronic colds and the 
cold-constitution. 

Kali hydriodicum \Iodide of Pot- 
assium), — Profuse flow of clear 
water from eyes and nose ; accumu- 
lation of thick, tenacious mucus in 
the nose ; discharge of greenish- 
black or yellow matter of foul smell; 
nose-bleed ; discharge of decom- 
posed greenish-red blood. Sensa- 
tion of fulness and tightness at the 



Acute Colds. 59 

root of the nose; swelling and 
redness of the nose; sensation of 
fnlness in the nose ; with beating 
pains in the nasal bones ; throbbing 
and burning in nasal and frontal 
bone with swelling ; after abuse of 
mercury. Aggravation : at night ; 
in cold air ; at rest ; better from 
motion. Dose : No. 3 or 30, two 
drops or six pilules every two 
hours. 

These are the chief medicines 
that will be required for the cure of 
ACUTE COI.DS. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE MEDICINAL TREATMENT OF 

CATARRH OR CHRONIC COLDS 

AND THE TENDENCY TO 

TAKE COLD. 

OHRONIC COLDS require 
somewhat different treatment. 
When a cold has gone on for weeks 
without any signs of passing away, 
Turkish baths, hot baths, hot foot 
baths, warm gruel, and all the rest of 
the domestic armamentarium hav- 
ing proved in vain, there is still 
some hope for the unhappy sufferer. 
He may yet find deliverance from 
the ruthless enemy which holds 
him by the nose, without going to 



Catarrh. 6i 



a warm climate or waiting till the 
summer comes. 

If tlie patient has not been 
already under homoeopathic treat- 
ment, the remedy for the case will 
most likely be found among those 
already described after Camphor 
2M^ Aconite; and even if he has had 
homoeopathic treatment, and his 
symptoms correspond to those 
which are characteristic of any one 
of the above-named remedies, this 
must be given. 

The chief remedies for chronic 
colds are Hydrastis^ Calc. carb.^ 
Natrum mur.^ Dulcamara^ Mer- 
curius^ Sulphur. 

Hydrastis. — This remedy is indi- 
cated when there is much thick 
discharge from the nose, and especi- 



62 Medicinal Treatment of 

ally the posterior part of the nose 
which leads to the throat ; when the 
mucus drops down into the throat, 
which is also affected with the 
catarrhal condition ; tongue yellow- 
coated ; tendency to constipation. 
Dose: No. i, two drops or six 
pilules every two hours. 

Hydrastis will be found useful in 
many conditions. A patient who 
suffered from chronic cold in the 
nose, and also deafness (which latter 
was the result of scarlatina, and 
dated many years back), the dis- 
charge from the nose being thick 
and the throat being also affected, 
was completely cured of the catarrh 
by a course of Hydrastis^ the 
deafness being also slightly im- 
proved. When a cold has settled 



Catarrh, 63 



in the back of the nose and throat, 
with a good deal of phlegm in 
the throat, and perhaps deafness, 
there is no better remedy than 
Hydrastis, 

Calcarea carb, — In persons of 
phlegmatic temperament, pale, and 
inclined to be fat ; in fair, plump 
children ; in persons who suffer 
from acidity ; internal chilliness ; 
coryza, chiefly dry ; nostrils sore ; 
polypus ; margins of eyelids sore. 
Aggravation: mornings^ evenings^ 
and after midnight; from cold and 
cold air. Dose : No. 6, two drops 
or six pilules every four hours. 

Natrum mur, — When the coryza 
is fluent ; chilly subjects ; the 
blood thin and watery ; complexion 
unhealthy ; thirst ; constipation. 



64 Medicinal Treatment of 

Disposition melancholy and tearful. 
Dose: No. 6, two drops or six pilules 
every two hours. It is patients of 
this description who will benefit by 
brine baths The baths should be 
hot, and should not be stayed in too 
long. They should be followed by 
cold spraying. 

Dulcamara — Extreme sensitive- 
ness to damp cold ; blocking of the 
nose, with a discharge that the least 
cold air stops anew ; dryness of the 
mouth without thirst ; hoarseness. 

Aggravation: during rest; ameli- 
oration during movement. Dose: 
No. 6, two drops or six pilules 
every two hours. 

Mercurius. — Abundant thick or 
fluent coryza of fetid odor ; feverish 
condition ; night sweats ; pains in 



Catarrh. 65 



the limbs ; desire for solitude. 
Aggravation by both heat and cold. 
Dose: No. 3^ trit., two grains, or 
two drops of No. 6, every four hours. 

Sulphur. — Blocking and great 
dryness of the nose, or abundant 
secretion of thick, yellowish, puru- 
lent mucus; bleeding ; loss of smell; 
suited to lean persons inclined to 
stoop ; those subject to skin affec- 
tions who perspire easily. Aggrava- 
tion from warmth of bed and during 
rest; better during motion and when 
walking. Dose: No. 6, two drops 
or six pilules every two hours. 

It is sometimes advisable to send 

patients of the sulphur type, if the 

English climate tries them greatly, 

to the sulphur springs, such as those 

of Eaux-Bonnes in the Pyrenees. 
6 



66 Medicinal Treatment of 

Among the sequelae of a cold in 
the head (vulgarly called '^ dregs of 
a cold") may be mentioned loss of 
taste and smell. This sometimes 
persists for a long time after all 
other signs of a cold have disap- 
peared. For this the remedy is 
Magnes. mur. 6, two drops or six 
pilules every four hours. 

The Tendency to take cold 
may be counteracted by a course of 
constitutional treatment. In order 
that this may be brought about, 
every individual must be considered 
in the light of his own constitutional 
peculiarities. Only the remedies 
most generally applicable can be in- 
dicated here, but they will be found 
to cover a very large number of 
cases. 

The remedies should be taken 



Catarrh. 67 



steadily twice or three times a day, 
and should be continued for one or 
two months. They may be com- 
menced, if indicated, whilst the cold 
still continues, or after it is cured. 

The remedies I shall name in this 
connexion are Natrum mur,^ Calc. 
carb.^ Car bo veg,^ Agaricus^ Sul- 
phur^ MercuriMs. These remedies 
must be selected according as they 
correspond with the constitutional 
state of the patient, rather than 
with any idea of finding an agree- 
ment between their cold symptoms 
and the peculiar features of the pa- 
tients' colds when they have them. 

Natrum mur, — Anaemic, ill-nour- 
ished, chilly persons, of unclear 
complexions ; inclined to constipa- 
tion ; despondent and tearful ; feel 



68 Medicinal Treatment of 

worse wlien lying down, from heat ; 
better in open air. Dose : No. 12, 
two drops or six pilules three times 
a day. 

With this remedy I have fre- 
quently removed the susceptibility 
to cold. Here is a case typical of 
many. A young girl about puberty, 
subject to colds, which came on 
with a kind of bilious attack ; 
always chilly ; hands and feet never 
warm, clammy; of nervous tempera- 
ment ; and somewhat anaemic. Nat. 
mur. 12, six pilules night and 
morning, made a complete revolu- 
tion in her general health and sus- 
ceptibility to chills within a month. 

Calc. carb. — Pale, phlegmatic per- 
sons; abnormally fat young people ; 
scrofulous or tubercular tendency ; 



Catarrh. 69 



those liable to acidity. Feel worse 
from cold and cold air. Dose : No. 
12, two drops or six pilules three 
times a day. 

Carbo veg, — Persons whose vital 
powers are low ; venous system 
predominant, giving a blue look to 
the countenance and flesh ; cold 
blue hands and feet ; sj^mptoms 
worse in cold damp weather. Dose : 
No. 12, two drops or six pilules 
three times a day. 

Agaricus, — When there is mark- 
ed tendency to chilblains ; more 
suited for persons of light hair and 
lax fibre, and for old persons with 
indolent circulation. Symptoms 
worse in night ; in cold air ; during 
repose ; before a thunderstorm. 
Dose : No. 6, two drops or six pil- 
ules three times a day. 



70 Treatment of Chronic Colds. 

Sulphur.— ChiWy persons with 
tendency to skin irritation or actual 
skin disease ; tendency to constipa- 
tion and piles ; symptoms being 
worse from warmth and by rest. 
Dose: No. 30, one drop or six 
pilules three times a day. 

Mercurzus. — Scrofulous, rheu- 
matic, bilious persons, and those 
subject to catarrhs of all kinds ; 
broken down constitutions ; trem- 
bling limbs ; cold pale hands and 
feet. Patients feel worse at night 
from warmth of bed ; from perspira- 
tion; cold weather; cold evening air; 
warm autumn days; damp cold 
nights ; better during the day and 
during rest. Dose: No. 12, two 
drops or six pilules three times a 
day. 



CHAPTER VII. 



NASAL POLYPUS. 



/^NE of the consequences of 
chronic irritation of the nasal 
mucous membrane is the develop- 
ment of polypus, which consists of 
an immensely hypertrophied fol- 
licle of normal mucous membrane. 
There are also polypi, which con- 
sist of new growth, arising inde- 
pendently of chronic irritation or 
catarrh, but I am only dealing 
here with the simple and com- 
moner kind. 

A polypus may exist some time 
without giving rise to any symp- 



7 2 Nasal Polypus. 

toms ; but wlien it increases so far 
as to obstruct the passage of air 
through the nose and into the 
lungs, a great deal of discomfort 
and annoyance is occasioned. The 
patient is often aroused in the mid- 
dle of the night with distressing 
sensations of suffocation. Attacks 
of spasmodic asthma may occur. 
The nose being the upper extremity 
of the air passages, the lungs are 
in intimate nervous sympathy with 
it, and affections of the nose often 
produce symptoms in the lungs. 

Polypi sometimes have their 
origin in the anterior part of the 
nasal mucous membrane, and when 
of any size they can be seen as red 
moist masses on looking into the 
nostrils. Sometimes they are further 



Nasal Polypus, 7 3 

back, and hang into the back of the 
throat. They are almost always 
attended with copious discharge, 
both front and back, keeping up a 
continual ^^cold." 

The usual method of dealing with 
polypus is to remove it, and the 
method now most approved is by 
the electric wire. But polypus is a 
constitutional affair, and should by 
right be cured by constitutional 
remedies. This has been done 
times out of number, and should 
always be aimed at by homceo- 
pathists. 

A year or two ago I was con- 
sulted by letter on behalf of a young 
lady, aged 20, in the country, who 
had been troubled for three or four 
years with an excessive discharge 



74 Nasal Polypus. 

from the nose and dropping of 
discliarge from back of tlie nose 
down the throat. The least cold 
air aggravated the complaint, and, 
conversely, it was better in a warm 
room. She suffered, in addition, 
from cold, damp feet; faint feel- 
ings, and bilious sick headaches. 

She received Calcarea in very 
high potencies at rare intervals. 
From the first the symptoms began 
to improve. Later on. Thuja was 
given, and afterwards Dulcamara^ 
Silica^ and Stannum^ her health 
and the local symptoms steadily 
improving all the time. About 
eighteen months from the com- 
mencement of the course she 
passed from the nose a polypus an 
inch and a half in length. The 



Nasal Polypus. 75 

passing was preceded and followed 
by sharp bleeding. There has been 
no recurrence since. 

It may be objected that the 
treatment occupied a long time, 
whereas an operation could have 
relieved the patient in a few 
minutes. This is true so far as the 
removal of the polypus is concerned, 
but the effect of the medicinal 
treatment was to bring about a 
complete constitutional change in 
the patient, and to work a constitu- 
tional cure. Polypi have an awk- 
ward habit of recurring after 
removal by operation ; but when a 
cure is wrought by medicine the 
tendency to recur is removed. 
Moreover, operative removal of a 
polypus does not cure the original 



76 Nasal Polypus. 

irritation whicli gave rise to the 
formation as constitutional treat- 
ment does. 

The remedies chiefly credited 
with the cure of polypus are 
Calcarea (which had a leading 
share in my case), and Thuja 
(which was also used), Nitric acid^ 
Sanguinaria^ Phosphorus^ and Teu- 
crium. Lately, Dr. Cooper has 
introduced a new remedy, Lemna 
minor^ the well-known duckweed, 
which has effected remarkable cures 
in his own practice and that of 
others, and which promises to be 
a very important medicine in nasal 
cases. Cases of atrophic rhinitis 
have been reported as cured by it. 
Aggravation in damp weather is a 
leading indication for its use. 



Nasal Polypus. 77 

The indications for the different 
remedies mentioned above will be 
found in the Materia Medica at the 
end of the work. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
HAY FEVBR. 

TN the early summer, just when 
the grass is in flower, a number 
of people become affected with 
violent irritation of the nasal 
mucous membrane, accompanied 
with more or less constitutional 
disturbance, as prostration and 
fever, with catarrh, congestion of 
the eyes, headache, oppression of 
the breathing. This condition lasts 
throughout the summer whenever 
the individual comes in contact with 
the effluvia of hay. The symp- 
toms are caused by particles of the 



Hay Fever. 79 

pollen of the hay which find their 
way into the nasal cavities. Hay 
is not the only offender, as the 
pollen of many flowers is capable 
of setting up the same train of 
symptoms, — violent and almost in- 
cessant sneezing, streaming eyes 
and nostrils, chilliness and feverish 
symptoms, headache, and often 
great depression, general weakness, 
and wasting. 

How is it, it may be asked, see- 
ing that the pollen is everywhere 
inhaled by everybody, that all are 
not affected alike? The reply, 
that not all persons are sensitive 
alike, brings us to the further query, 
Why are some sensitive and others 
not ? Here we arrive at the crux 
of the whole matter : it is a consti- 



8o Hay Fever. 

tutional weakness of some kind or 
other, and in numberless cases I 
have traced it to that great parent 
of woes — GOUT. I have known 
many persons, members of highly 
gouty families, who have prided 
themselves on being the only ones 
who have escaped gout, when all 
the time they have had it in their 
noses without recognizing it. For 
my part, I consider it less objec- 
tionable in the toe. 

Gout, in my experience, consti- 
tutes a large section of the great 
psoric family of disorders as classi- 
fied by Hahnemann. But in many 
subjects of hay fever, it is sycosis, 
the second of the disease-miasms 
described by Hahnemann, which is 
at the root of the disorder. 



Hay Fever. 8i 

Though only manifest in the 
summer, the disease actually exists 
through the winter, only awaiting 
the peculiar stimulus to make it 
manifest. Careful observation of a 
patient in the intervals of the at- 
tacks will disclose the nature of the 
constitutional tendency. 

It is astonishing to what shifts 
those who have the means to adopt 
them are driven to escape their 
summer enemy. In flight to the 
high Alps some find safety; but the 
safest place of all is on board ship. 
But homoeopathic treatment can, in 
a large number of cases, save the 
necessity of yearly banishment; and 
even when it cannot altogether 
prevent the recurrence of attacks, it 
can so far mitigate their severity as 



82 Hay Fever. 

to render life j ust tolerable in spite 
of them. 

A few years ago, in the early 
summer, I was consulted by a gen- 
tleman, aged 40, who had been 
subject to hay fever from May till 
August every year as long as he 
could remember. He had had very 
severe treatment for it, including 
operations on the bones of his nose 
and cauterising the mucous mem- 
brane with electric cauteries. Still 
the attacks were no better. In a very 
short time antipsoric treatment put 
an end to all the symptoms. He 
passed through the summer with- 
out any trouble, and he has hardly 
had any to speak of since. 

Naphthalin 3^ (one drop or six 
pilules every two hours) has proved 



Hay Fever. 83 

itself a very useful remedy in a 
large number of cases. 

Sabadilla 3 (every two or four 
hours), violent sneezing with lach- 
rymation, redness and swelling of 
eyelids, contractions, stupefying 
headache. 

Arsenicum 3, with thirst, fever, 
restlessness and anguish; aggrava- 
tion from cold air. This may be 
given every two hours during an 
attack, and twice a day beforehand 
as a prophylactic. 

Psorinum 30 will cure a large 
number of cases when there is very 
great sensitiveness to cold. Pa- 
tients like to be near a fire or 
wrapped in furs even in summer 
weather. It may be given three or 
four times a day. 



SECTION II. 
Grippe or Influenza. 



CHAPTER I. 

DESCRIPTION. 

OINCE the earlier editions of this 
book were written the worst epi- 
demic of Influenza within modern 
times has visited all parts of the 
civilised world, and seems to de- 
mand some notice in a treatise on 
colds, especially as we are not yet by 
any means rid of the disease, and 
may at any time find ourselves face 
to face with a fresh outbreak. 



Description of 85 

In order to distinguisli it from 
the '^ Influenza Colds,'' whicli we 
have always with us, the malady is 
sometimes called ^^ Siberian " or 
^^ Russian " Influenza, since the 
epidemics have always begun in 
the northern part of the Russian 
Empire. Corresponding to its 
chilly origin, one of the features 
of the disease is to cause an intense 
chilliness, alternating with fever, 
and to leave the patient excessively 
sensitive to cold for a very long 
time after. Many persons who have 
never before required or even 
tolerated woollen clothing next the 
skin have been compelled to adopt 
it after undergoing an attack. In 
this respect it is like the malarial 
fevers, and some have on this 



86 Grippe. 

account given it the name ^ ^malarial 
catarrh.'' But it is clearly distin- 
guished from true malaria by its 
infectious character. The poison 
of ague is obviously of earth and 
water origin, and when a person has 
contracted ague in a malarial dis- 
trict, and afterwards leaves that dis- 
trict and has an attack of ague, he 
does not communicate the disease 
to others. Influenza, whatever may 
be its origin, certainly does spread 
from one person to another by 
direct infection. But here again is 
a peculiarity : it has no fixed period 
of development, and there is no 
certainty of its developing at all. 
Some persons have been struck 
down within an hour or two after 
exposure to infection. Others have 



Description of 87 

gone days, and have only been 
affected when they have ^^ caught 
cold/' the chill having the effect of 
lowering the vitality, and giving 
the poison the opportunity of de- 
veloping. This explains how it is 
that elaborate precautions for avoid- 
ing infection have not been of much 
use. In the height of an epidemic 
the infection is probably every- 
where. Every person has the 
germs in him, but it requires some 
exciting cause to rouse them into 
activity. When a person becomes 
infected with small-pox, for in- 
stance, within a fortnight the 
disease will appear. It requires 
no additional impetus to start it 
into life ; and so it is with all the 
eruptive fevers. But with influenza 



88 Grippe. 

it is very different. The poison 
may be dormant for an indefinite 
time, and may show itself after the 
person has been exposed to a chill, 
a wetting, an overstrain of any 
kind, or an accident. 

The forms which influenza may 
take are protean. There is no one 
symptom that I know of that is 
common to all, or even to the 
majority of cases. Some people 
think it necessary for there to be 
rise of temperature ; that unless 
there is fever it cannot be influ- 
enza. I have seen many cases of 
unmistakable influenza in which 
the temperature has been all the 
time subnormal. 

The classical type of influenza is 
marked by severe pains and soreness 



Description of 89 

all over, especially in the back and 
head, and frequently setting in 
quite suddenly. Repeated chills 
are followed by high fever, with 
increase of the pains. The eyes 
are bleer}^, the intellect dulled, and 
a sleepy, heavy condition induced. 
There is a heavy nasal catarrh, 
which persists long after the acute 
symptoms have passed off. The 
tongue is foul ; appetite lost. The 
throat is generally inflamed, and 
with all there is great prostration 
and mental depression. The pulse 
is as often slow as frequent, and 
does not correspond to the tempera- 
ture. The attack may last from 
one to several daj^s. 

This is the classical type, but 
the departures from it are innumer- 



90 Grippe. 

able. It may attack the chest, the 
heart, the bowels, or the brain. To 
describe them all would require a 
treatise on almost all the diseases 
that exist, for there is hardly any 
disease that influenza will not take 
the form of. 

In fact, one of the great predis- 
posing factors to an attack of in- 
fluenza is a constitutional weak- 
ness of some kind. Gout is one of 
its favourite bases. Influenza very 
readily combines with gout, and 
aggravates every gouty manifesta- 
tion a patient may have had before, 
whether it be a skin affection, joint- 
pains, catarrh, or any other of the 
innumerable expressions of the 
gouty diathesis. 

One attack of the disease has no 



Description of 91 

efifect in protecting against a second, 
and, on the contrary, it seems 
rather to predispose to it. Re- 
lapses are very freqnent. In many 
cases it seems as if recovery was 
never quite complete, the poison 
being always in the system, and 
ready to be excited to activity by 
any lowering cause. These cases 
require the most persistent and 
patient constitutional treatment to 
restore them to health. And the 
same may be said of the conse- 
quences which influenza leaves be- 
hind in the shape of neuralgias, 
sciatica, nervous breakdown (or 
'^ neurasthenia ''as it is now the 
fashion to call it) , mental depres- 
sion, and heart weakness and irri- 
tability, of which every practitioner 



92 Grippe. 

has seen so much since the epi- 
demic appeared. In these cases it 
is often impossible to succeed, un- 
less the patient can be persuaded 
to submit to a period of absolute 
rest. The general rule is, that as 
soon as they gather an amount of 
strength — feeling better — patients 
want to spend it. If they do, they 
soon drop down into the lowest 
depths again. 



CHAPTER II. 
TRKATMKNT. 

n^HE treatment of influenza is as 
various as its forms. The 
best preventive is to keep well-fed, 
well-clothed ; to avoid chilling, 
wetting, and exhaustion in any 
form, especially over-fatigue, or 
going too long without food. Many 
remedies have been recommended 
as prophylactics, especially Ant- 
moniated Quinine and Eucalyptus^ 
the odour of which last was at one 
time universally prevalent in every 



94 Grippe. 

public place. I do not advise the 
use of either. In my experience 
the best preventive is Arsenicum. 
Six pilules of Arsenicum in the No. 
3 strength should be taken three 
times a day when the epidemic is 
about. 

What about going to bed ? In 
severe cases this question needs no 
answer — the patient simply cannot 
stay up. But in a number of others 
the patient has strength enough to 
keep going on — is he to do it? 
Wherever there is a doubt it should 
be decided in favour of bed. It 
is true many persons have fought 
through an attack without seeming 
to take harm from it ; but wherever 
there is any delicacy of constitution, 
or where an internal organ has 



Treatment of 95 

become inflamed, delay in going to 
bed is attended with great danger. 
Every case must be decided on its 
own merits. 

The routine practice should be : 
Rest in bed, with hot bottles to feet 
if they are cold; light nourishment, 
as gruel, beef- tea, mutton broth or 
chicken tea, or milk diluted with 
boiling water, every two or three 
hours. This should be kept up till 
the fever goes, and the tongue be- 
comes clean, and the appetite re- 
turns. As soon as the patient can 
eat, he should have all the nourish- 
ment he can be got to take. 

With regard to baths, the caution 
given in an earlier chapter must be 
emphasized here. Complete baths 
are to be avoided, and blanket 



g6 Grippe. 

baths only are to be allowed. That 
is to say, the patient is to be rolled 
in a blanket, and sponged with hot 
water in detachments, each part 
being dried with a hot towel before 
another is washed. A complete 
bath shonld not be indulged in till 
recovery is complete ; many a re- 
lapse has been occasioned by neg- 
lect of this rule. 

Medicines. 

I have already mentioned that 
Arsenicum is the best prophylactic 
medicine I know. The nearest to 
a specific for the disease is Baptisia. 
It has all the symptoms described 
above in the classical type ; the 
general aching and soreness, heavy 



Medicines. 97 



head, besotted appearance, loaded 
tongue, sore throat, and fever, — 
and if no other remedy is clearly 
indicated in preference, I should 
give Bapt. every hour. It is effect- 
ive in all attenuations. I prefer 
the 30th ; but others have used the 
tincture with success, and all 
dilutions between. For general 
practice one or two drop doses of 
the 3^ is perhaps the best. 

Among other medicines may be 
named the following, with their 
leading indications : — 

Aconite. — Sharp fever ; dry skin; 
great restlessness ; depression ; an- 
guish ; sense of impending death. 
No. 3, one or two drops or six 
pilules every hour. 



98 Grippe. - 

Belladonna. — Intense throbbing 
headache, highly flushed face, 
tendency to delirium ; thirst, sore 
throat. Facial neuralgia and ear- 
ache, especially right side. No. 3, 
every hour. 

Bryonia. — Where the least move- 
ment of any kind aggravates the 
symptoms. No. 3, every hour. 

Rhus tox, — The opposite of 
Bry. The patient cannot keep still; 
has to move about to relieve the 
otherwise intolerable pains. Where 
the attack has been provoked by 
getting wet. No. 3, every hour. 

Gelsemium. — Where paralytic 
symptoms predominate, especially 
of the lower limbs. Intense head- 
ache; strong full pulse; giddiness. 
No. 3, every hour. 



Medicines. 99 



Phytolacca, — Specific when the 
tliroat is inflamed and spotty, the 
glands externally being hard and 
tender. No. 3, internally, every 
honr, and a gargle of the ^ tincture 
— ten drops to a teacupf ul of water. 
The gargle may be used every four 
hours. 

China. — When the headache is 
accompanied by giddiness and 
noises in the ears. In one case of 
this kind I relieved a patient — who 
was driven to the verge of madness 
by this symptom — in a few minutes 
with China 30, and no other medi- 
cine was required. 

In the CHRONIC effects of in- 
fluenza AND RESULTING DEBILITY 
careful constitutional treatment is 
required, and each case must be 



LofC. 



loo Grippe. 

treated by itself. There are, liow- 
ever, a few remedies which may be 
usefully mentioned here. 

Natrum salicylicum^ No. 3, every 
two or four hours, has relieved 
many cases in which symptoms of 
vertigo, with noise in the head, have 
remained after influenza. Patients 
to whom I have given it have so 
frequently praised its '^ tonic' ^ effect 
that I have given it (and with great 
success) where the debility has 
been the leading symptom, and no 
head symptoms have been com- 
plained of. Sulphur^ Arsenicum^ 
and Natrum mur. will be frequently 
required, according to indications 
already given. In the profound 
prostration, with loss of flesh, which 
often follows, Kali iodatum 30, 



Grippe. loi 

every four hours, has proved a very 
efficient remedy in my experience. 
Finally, where there is great chilli- 
ness, debility that compels the pa- 
tient to lie down, sinking sensation 
and general prostration, Psorinum 
30, three or four times a day, will 
give great relief. 



MATERIA MEDICA. 



Aconite. — Suitable for a cold from 
the commencement and during the first 
two days. Influenza. 

Symptoms. — Chills and heats, sneezing, 
coryza, headache. In influenza: sharp 
fever, dry skin, great depression, and in- 
tense restlessness and anxiety. 

Dose: No. 3, one drop or six pilules 
every hour. 

Agaricus. — To correct tendency to 
colds. 

Symptoms. — Chilblains ; nervous twitch - 
ings; indolent circulation; in persons of 
light hair and lax fibre; inclined to be fat; 
feel worse in the night; in cold air; dur- 
ing repose; before a thunderstorm. 

Dose: No. 6, two drops or six pilules 
three times a day. 



I04 Materia Medica. 

Arsenicum. — For acute or chronic 
colds. Also in hay fever and influenza, 
both as a prophylactic and in the treat- 
ment of the disease when indicated by 
the symptoms. 

Symptoms. — Thin, irritating nasal dis- 
charge; hot, burning sensation in nose 
and eyes; burning thirst; red tongue; 
anxiety; restlessness; prostration; fever; 
headache; sleeplessness. Better by 
warmth. 

Dose: No. 3, two drops or six pilules 
every two hours. As a prophylactic, 
twice a day. 

Baptisia. — Almost specific in influ- 
enza. 

Symptoms, — Pains all over and gen- 
eral soreness; restlessness; drowsy; be- 
sotted expression; catarrh; sore throat, 
headache. 

Dose: No. 3'', one or two drops every 
hour. 

BE1.1.ADONNA. — Influenza. 



Materia Medica, 105 

Symptoms. — Intense throbbing head- 
ache; highly flushed face; sore throat; 
tendency to delirium, neuralgia of face, 
and earache. 

Dose: No. 3, one or two drops every 
hour. 

Bryonia. — Influenza. 

Symptoms. — Pains all over, aggravated 
by the least movement. 

Dose: No. 3^, one or two drops every 
hour. 

Calcarea garb. — Suitable for chronic 
colds and for correcting the tendency to 
colds. Also for Polypus. 

Symptoms. — The leuco-phlegmatic tem- 
perament; acidity; internal chilliness; 
coryza, chiefly dry; nostrils sore; poly- 
pus; margins of eyelids sore. Aggrava- 
tion of symptoms morning and evening, 
from cold water and cold air. 

Dose: For chronic cold, No. 6, two 
drops or six pilules every two hours. 



io6 Materia Medica. 

For correcting tendency, No. 12, two 
drops or six pilules three times a day. 

Camphor. — At the very beginning of 
a cold before the chill has passed off. 
Camphor was recommended by Hahne- 
mann as a remedy for Russian influenza, 
and has been used with good effect in the 
recent epidemic, when the initial chill 
has been great and attended with great 
prostration. 

Dose: One camphor pill, or one drop 
of Rubini's tincture on sugar, every fif- 
teen minutes until reaction sets in. 

Carbo vkg. — For correcting tendency 
to colds. 

Symptoms. — I^ow vital power; venous 
engorgement, giving the skin and com- 
plexion a blue appearance; blue cold 
hands and feet; aggravation in warm 
damp weather. 

Dose: No. 12, two drops or six pilules 
three times a da3^ 



Materia Medica. 107 

Ckpa (^Allium cepd). — Acute colds. 

Symptoms. — Fluent coryza; tightness 
at root of nose; constant sneezing; pain 
in back, and chills; melancholy, anxiety, 
restlessness. Worse entering warm room 
from cold air; better out of doors. 

Dose: No. 3, two drops or six pilules 
every two hours. 

Dulcamara. — In chronic colds. 

Symptoms, — Extreme sensitiveness to 
damp cold; blocking of the nose, with a 
discharge which the least cold air stops 
again; dryness of the mouth without 
thirst; hoarseness; aggravation during 
rest; amelioration during movement. 

Dose : No. 6, two drops or six pilules 
every two hours. 

GkIvSEMIUm. — In acute colds. Influ- 
enza. 

Symptoms. — Creeping chills up the 
back; fulness of the head; heat of face; 
fulness over root of nose; sneezing; fluent 



io8 Materia Medtca. 

coryza; restlessness at night, with drowsi- 
ness and languor. The fever remits, 
passing off without perspiration, and re- 
curring again. With the chills there is 
profuse flow of urine with relief to the 
head. Aggravation of symptoms by 
warmth of bed; after midnight; in damp 
weather; and from change of weather. 

Dose : No. i , one drop or six pilules 
every hour. 

Hkpar. — Acute and chronic colds 
when Mercurius is indicated but fails to 
act, or where the patient has been over- 
dosed with mercury formerly. 

Symptoms. — When each draught of air 
produces a fresh cold or a headache, the 
cold affecting one nostril only, and the 
headache being made worse by move- 
ment. 

Dose : No. 6, two drops or six pilules 
every two hours. 

Hydrastis. — For chronic colds. 



Materia Medica. 109 

Symptoms. — Much thick discharge 
from the nose, and especially from the 
posterior part which leads to the throat; 
mucus dropping down into the throat; 
throat in catarrhal condition; tongue 
yellow-coated ; constipation ; all-gone 
'^ sinking " sensation at epigastrium. 

Dose : No. i, two drops or six pilules 
every two hours. 

Kali hydriodicum {Iodide of Potassi- 
um). — Acute and chronic colds. Influ- 
enza and its resulting debility. 

Symptoms. — Profuse flow of clear water 
from eyes and nose; accumulation of thick 
tenacious mucus in the nose; discharge of 
greenish-black or yellow matter of foul 
smell; nose-bleed; discharge of decom- 
posed greenish-red blood; sensation of 
fulness and tightness at the root of the 
nose; swelling and redness of the nose; 
sensation of swelling in the nose, with 
beating pains in the nasal bones; throb- 
bing and burning in nasal and frontal 



no Materia Medica. 

bones, with swelling; abuse of mercury. 
Aggravation: at night; in cold air; at rest. 
Better from motion. 

Dose: Nos. 3 or 30, two drops or six 
pilules every two hours. 

Lkmna. — Colds and polypus. 

Symptoms, — The indications for this 
medicine are obstruction of the nose, es- 
pecially bad in damp weather. 

Dose: No. 3'', two drops three times a 
day. 

Magnesia mur. — For loss of taste 
and smell left behind after a cold. 

Dose : No. 6, two drops every four 
hours. 

lAn'R.^\5^T^^(^Mercurius solubilis or Mer- 
curius vivus'). — For acute and chronic 
colds. Tendency to take cold. 

Symptoms, — Common cold, with abun- 
dant discharge of serous mucus; nose 
swollen and red; fetid smell of nasal 
mucus; heavy frontal headache; deaf- 
ness; nightly sweat, with febrile chill 



Materia Medica. iii 

and heat; great thirst; pain in the limbs; 
low spirits; desire for solitude; all symp- 
toms increased both by heat and cold. 

Dose : For cold, No. 6, two drops or 
six pilules every two hours. For the 
liability to cold, No. 12, two drops or six 
pilules three times a day. 

NAPHTHAI.IN. — Hay fever. 

Dose: One drop or six pilules every two 
hours whilst the acute symptoms last. 

Natrum mur. — Acute and chronic 
colds. Liability to cold. Influenza. 

Symptoms, — Fluent coryza; weight in 
forehead on rising in the morning; vesicles 
on lips; chills along the back; constipa- 
tion; sadness, depression, inclination to 
weep; aggravation of symptoms in the 
morning and periodically; chilly sub- 
jects; unclear complexion; after malarial 
fevers or abuse of quinine; anaemia. 

Dose : For colds. No. 6, two drops or 
six pilules every two hours. For liability 



112 Materia Medica. 

to cold, No. 12, two drops or six pilules 
three times a day. 

Natrum SALiCYiyicUM. — Debility after 
influenza. 

Symptoms. — Great weakness, with 
tightness of the head, especially if there 
is deafness, with giddiness and noises in 
the ears. 

Dose: No. 3, one or two drops four 
times a day. 

Nux VOMICA. — Acute colds. 

Symptoms, — Dry coryza, with blocking 
of the nose; or dry coryza in the morning 
and fluent in the evening and night; 
heaviness of forehead; angry and quarrel- 
some humour; constipation. Aggrava- 
tion from mental exertion; in the morn- 
ing; after eating, especially after dinner; 
from motion; from slight touch; in open 
air; in dry weather. 

Dose: No. 3, two drops or six pilules 
every two hours. 

PHYT01.ACCA. — Influenza. 



Materia Medica. 113 

Sy77ipto7ns. — Sore throat with white 
spots on tonsils and sore glands externally; 
pains in the back and all over; worst in 
damp weather. 

Dose: No. 3^, one or two drops every 
houn A gargle of five drops of the S 
tincture to a teacupful of water may be 
used every three or four hours. 

PsORiNUM. — Chronic colds. Influenza. 
Hay fever. 

Syinptoms, — Constant sneezing; drop- 
ping of mucus down posterior nares; 
great aversion to cold air and to w^ashing; 
prostration; sinking sensation; better 
lying down. Follows Sulphur well. 

Dose: No. 30, six pilules three or four 
times a day, 

Pui.SATii.iv A. — Acute colds. 

Symptoms, — Discharge of yellowish- 
green fetid mucus; loss of appetite and 
sense of taste; head heavy and embar- 
rassed, especially in the evening and by 

9 



114 Materia Medica. 

warmth of a room, with stopping of the 
nose; absence of thirst; chilliness in the 
evening; better in the open air. Suitable 
for blonde persons; of soft fibre; gentle 
disposition. 

Dose: No. 3, two drops or six pilules 
every two hours. 

Rhus TOX. — Influenza. 

Sywpio77is. — The opposite of Biyonia. 
The patient must move about continually 
to get relief from pains. 

Dose: No. 3, one or two drops every 
hour. 

SabadilIvA. — Hay fever. 

Syinptoms, — Violent sneezing with 
lachrymation; redness and swelling of 
eyelids; contracting, stupefying head- 
ache. 

Dose: No. 3, two drops or six pilules 
every two hours. 

Sanguinaria Canad. and Nitratk 
OF Sanguinarin. — For acute and chronic 
colds. Polypus. 



Materia Medica. 115 

Symptoms. — Coryza profuse and fluent; 
or dry, with frequent sneezing; dull, 
heavy pain at root of nose; odour of 
roasted onions in the nose; dryness of 
lips; tongue feels as if burnt; throat full, 
swollen, and constricted; sharp stitches 
in chest; depression and irritability. 
Aggravation morning and evening; from 
light and motion. 

Dose: S ajig ulnar ia, No. i, two drops 
or six pilules every two hours; Nitrate of 
Sangitijiarin^ No. 3^ trituration, one 
grain every two hours. 

Sulphur. — For chronic colds and for 
tendency to colds. Effects of influenza. 

Sympto77is, — Blocking and great dry- 
ness of nose; or abundant secretion of 
thick, yellowish, purulent mucus; bleed- 
ing; loss of smell; tendency to skin af- 
fections and to perspire easily. Aggrava- 
tion from warmth of bed and during rest; 
better during motion. 

Dose: For cold, No. 6, two drops or 



ii6 Materia Medica. 

six pilules every two hours. For tend- 
ency, No. 30, two drops or six pilules 
three times a day. 

Thuja. — Chronic colds. Polypus. 

Symptoms, — Sensitiveness to cold and 
damp; sycotic subjects; in those who 
have suffered much from vaccination. 

Dose: No. 30, a drop or six pilules 
once a day. 



INDE^ 



yv. 



Aconite, lo, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 97, 

103. 
Agaricus, 47, 69, 103. 
Allium cepa, 39, 107. 
Amtnoniated quinine, 93. 
Arsenicum, 49, 51, 70, 8;^^ 94, 96, 100, 

104. 
Baptisia, 96, 97, 104. 
Bath, cold, remarks on, 17, 26, 27. 
Bath, hot, 22, 39. 
Bath, Turkish, 22, 39. 
Baths, use of, in influenza, 95. 
Belladonna, 98, 104. 
Bryonia, 98, 105. 
Burnett, Dr., on Natrum muriaticum, 56. 

Calcarea carb. , 61, S^t 67, 6S, 74, 76, 105. 
Camphor, 45, 46, 47, 48, 106. 



ii8 Index. 

Carbo veg., 47, 49, 106. 

Catarrh, chronic, 60. 

Cepa, 39, 49, 53, 107. 

China, 99, 

Clothes, wet, sitting in, apt to cause chill, 

17. 
Clothing, importance of suitable, 29. 
Cod liver oil for external application, 27. 
Cold, acute, medicinal treatment of, 45. 
Cold bath, remarks on, 17, 26, 27. 
Cold-curing, 32. 
Cold in the head, 41. 
Cold-preventing, 25, 
Cold, tendency to take, 66. 
Cold, violent, in gouty patients cured by 

Cepa, 53. 
Cold, ways of catching, 13. 
Colds, chronic, medicinal treatment of, 60. 
Colds, general, remarks on, i. 
Cooper, Dr., on I^emna minor, 76. 

Dulcamara, 61, 64, 74, 107. 



Index. 119 

Eaux-bonnes sulphur springs valuable for 

chronic colds, 41, 65. 
Eucalyptus, 93. 

Foods, what should be avoided, 43. 

Gelsemium, 49, 50, 98, 107. 

Girl, young, subject to colds, case of, 68. 

Gout ftequently induces hay fever, 80. 

Hay fever, 78. 

Hay fever, case of, 82. 

Hepar sulphuris, 52, 108. 

Homoeopathy can be adapted to any dis- 
order, 36. 

Hydrastis, 61, 62, 63, 108. 

Influenza, chronic effects of, require con- 
stitutional treatment, 99. 

Influenza cold, 6, 51. 

Influenza, description of, 84. 

Influenza, epidemic, 7. 

Influenza, medicines for, 96. 

Influenza, treatment of, 93. 



I20 Index. 



Jaeger, Dr., on clothing, 30. 

Kali hydriodicum (iodide of potassium), 
58, 100, 109, 

*' Lancet, the, on German experitnenters, 
II. 

lycmna minor, 76, no. 

Magnes. mur., 66, no. 
Materia medica, 103. 
Mercurius viv., 10, 47, 49, 51, 52, 61, 64, 
67, 70, no. 

Naphthalin, 82, in. 

Nasal polypus, 71. 

Nasal polypus, case of, in young lady, 73. 

Natruni muriaticum, 40, 49, 56, 61, 63, 

67, 68, 100, III. 
Natrum salicylicum, 100, 112. 
Nitric acid, 76. 
Nux vomica, 49, 54, 112. 

Onion gruel, hot, as a remedy for cold, 39, 



Index. 121 

Phosphorus, 76. 
Phytolacca, 99, 112. 
Psorinum, 83, loi, 113. 
Pulsatilla, 49, 54, 55, 113. 

Rhinitis, atrophic, cured by Lemna 

minor, 76. 
Rhus tox., 98, 114. 
Roche, Dr. W., on Natrum muriaticum, 

57. 

Sabadilla, 83, 114. 

Salad oil, when useful for the skin, 22, 27. 
Salt treatment, 40. 
Sanguinaria, 49, 55, 76, 114. 
Sang, uitr., 55, 76, 114. 
Sheets, damp, danger of sleeping in, 16. 
Silica, 74. 

Spirits of wine, sponging with, 28. 
Stannum, 74. 

Sulphur, 6t, 65, 67, 78, 100, 115. 
Sulphur springs valuable for chronic 
colds, 41. 



122 Index. 

Teucrium, 76. 
Thuja, 74, 76, 116. 



OCT 261899 



SSI 



yiisi 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




00025^73574 



